Arduino is how they are spelled.
www.arduino.cc
An Arduino Uno could do what you want
Arduino Uno + Break-Out Board (BOB) + Stepper Driver + Stepper Motor
Other things needed - power supply, wiring, maybe an LED display with some buttons for input, maybe some limit switches
BOBs may be a shield - a board that plugs onto the Arduino
Your stepper driver is sized by the amps needed for the stepper motor you want to run.
You will size the motor based on the torque needed to accomplish your task (turning the handscrew through its range of motion for example)
Limit switches could handle your range of motion - You would code for them to set limits and zero the travel
Then code a travel distance
Code it to stop at the limits as well and slow down when it gets close if you speed it up during a long travel
Also wire the switches normally closed so if a wire breaks movement will not work. You don't want to have a failure in a switch or wiring and not know it.
If you have no idea what a sketch is or this is new to you, buy a $6-$9 import arduino uno on ebay and just play around with it. Get the leds to blink demonstrating handling of out puts. Wire in a small switch and get it reading in inputs.
Once you are comfortable start reading up on motor shields and stepper drivers. If you can get by with nema17 steppers a pololu drive might just work
For just a few dollars more wire the bob to a RaspberryPi. Hell you could set your jointer height from a bluetooth enabled phone by adding a $9 module to the pi.
Also you could get crazy and wire in a igaging dro scale (or nicer one) and read its location for positioning as an input. Then you could tell it to just go to the thickness you want.
Even if you encode the end of a stepper you will still need a reference point.
Projects like this, folks do not typically just give you (or even sell you) all the answers or do it for you. You will have to start researching and through trial and error and exaples from others you typically learn what is needed for your application.
There is always the cordless screwdriver at the end of the day.